Pages

Saturday, November 28, 2009

It has been quite a few books and weeks since I finished that one, I should post more often.This is a real good book (fiction) about a few hackers. While it shows at times how old it is (BBS, AOL), I found it accurate and the methods are described without the usual mistakes. There is also a good balance between the computer-word and real-world, and a lot of action. The writing style of Deaver may get on your nerves after a few books, as it is obvious what to expect, but once in a while it is very gripping. There are only few fiction books I would compare it too, to mind come Rudy Rucker: The Hacker and The Ants (there is V 2.0 available) and Neal Stephenson: Snowcrash - but both books touch a wider range of problems, going in to SF and deep philosophical questions, so maybe the comparison is not entirely fair. It is definitely not boring, and has a few pages in front with a collection of terms and abbreviations, explained. This should help a novice, so you do not need much or even any computer-knowledge to enjoy the book.It just popped in my mind, there is another great SF-Book, but maybe it is also too far fetched for a comparison: John Brunner: The Shockwave Rider. While that was pure SF by the time it was written, the view into the future was pure genius (betting on the stockmarket outcome, big net, CPU-Power either local or rented).

I understand that you are disappointed with the recent changes to the Comics module. The provider of our Comics content has created a new app for viewing comics data. Old versions will no longer be supported. To add the new version, click on the "Add New Comics App" link, then, remove the old version from your page by clicking the "Remove App" link.

Unfortunately, the previous format is no longer available so there is nooption to switch back. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Well, at least it was a fast answer and polite. My personal solution, I link directly to the comics in question completely dropping yahoo and the application. I still cannot understand why someone uses a flash UI to choose static content.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

I use Yahoo personalized as a portal and have a few tabs configured at my.yahoo.com.One of these had 2 comics, well not anymore.The following was just posted to the support of yahoo.com:

I am using firefox 3.5 on Mac OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard for my.yahoo.I read 2 daily comics, "Garfield" and "Non Sequitor". Yahoo recently switched the comics module, to "GoComics". This does not work for me, I currently have a screen resolution of 1680*1050 (iMac 20"), might switch to a higher resolution (1920*1080 or more, iMac 21.5 or 27). The Comics are too small be read (by me). So with the old module I opened the comic with a simple click for each comic in a new tabulator. WIth the awkward interface of GoComics I have to click a few times to watch a single comic bigger, then go back to the other comic and click again to watch it bigger. Also I open Firefox with quite a lot of Tabs (20), and the GoComic-Content is not always loaded. I use NoScript and Add Block as Addons in Firefox, but have tweaked them, so it is no problem with the yahoo-content and the comics from GoComic.I currently have removed the GoComic-Content and have added new Tabs, with urls directly to the daily comics from Garfield and Non sequitor. I just want you to know, that this GoComic-Content is not functional and awkward. You did not do yourself a favour by switching to it. The old way was better. Other users might be put off by it, like me. Bye, Ingo Lembcke, Hamburg, Germany

eBook Jeffery Deaver - The Blue Nowhere. This will certainly be more suspensefull than the last book I read. A have read 2 books by Deaver in the last few weeks and while they are all structured alike, there might be enough murder & mayhem to satisfy me, so it should be thrilling.

OK, so I finished "Mark Cohen: The Fractal Murders". I did not like it too much, the basic story about the murders could fit in 50 pages or less. The idea of using fractal-mathematics to base a business-model on (I will not give to much away here) is sound and even for laymen well explained. For me it could have gone deeper into the world of fractals. Nearly no action, no suspense, and I guessed the whodunnit rather early in the book - and was right. A rather boring philosopher (Heidegger) also played part in the book, this could have been more interesting, but then again, I never liked Heidegger. The book was short, but consisted of a lot of personal stuff and description of places, which did nothing for me nor the advancement of the story. Despite that it is a good read, but no page-turner. Most surprising for me, it was also not boring. Would I buy another book from the same author? Maybe, depending on the theme.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Most Books are paperbacks, but since I bought an eBook reader I am using it. It's a Sony PRS 505, bought in Germany April 2008 on eBay before they where officially sold here - nearly exactly a year later (May 2009).

And I hate DRM.

21: Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions"Ben Mezrich